Great Zimbabwe
Great
Zimbabwe is an African Iron Age city located in the southeastern part
of Zimbabwe. Sprawling across 100 acres of land, the site was built without
mortar and are the largest ruins in the surrounding areas of Zimbabwe
and Mozambique, some say the whole of southern Africa. Abandoned by the
15th century, it was discovered by swashbuckling European explorers in
the late 1800s.
The vast construction of the site caused some of them to believe it was the site of King Solomon's mines, while others thought they were built by the Phoenicians or ancient Greeks.
It was only in the early 20th century that English archaeologists David Randal-MacIver and Gertrude Caton-Thompson attributed the site to the local people living in southern Africa.
The
state of Zimbabwe was originally known as Rhodesia but was named after
the site, with Zimbabwe meaning "stone houses" in the language
of the Bantu Shona people whose ancestors, according to the duo mentioned
above, built the site.
Right: Hill Complex, Great Zimbabwe National Monument. Corel photo.
According to the Encylopaedia Britannica, stratigraphic evidence dates the earliest stones back to 900 AD, while the exterior walls, which reach up to 36 feet (11m) in height and 18 feet (6.5m) thick at the bottom, were built in the twelfth century. At the peak of its time in AD 1100 to 1500 Great Zimbabwe was a thriving population centre and trade empire, supporting up to 20,000 people and having trade that reached China, evident from Ming Dynasty pottery found there dated back to the 4th century AD.
There are 3 main areas at the site. The oldest, the Hill Complex, said to be the spiritual and religious centre of the city, is located on the 260 foot (79.5m) high granite hill at the site. To the south at the foot of the hill are the Valley Enclosures and the Great Enclosure, with a wall circumference of 820 feet (250.5m)